SAP
Fallstudie

Case Study: How SAP was able to Shift to 100% Renewable Energy with Smart Renewable Energy Solutions

SAP is a global multinational software corporation that makes enterprise software to manage business operations and customer relations. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, the company operates regional offices and data centres all over the globe.

The goal

German-based software company SAP is growing at an astonishing rate, and with the
IT sector responsible for 2% of global GHG emissions, the company wants to reduce
its carbon footprint to year 2000 levels by 2020. SAP identified renewable electricity as
pivotal in reaching this target and in early 2014, announced its commitment to 100%
renewable energy in all its data centres and facilities worldwide. In January 2015, SAP
became one of the first companies to join the RE100 initiative.

The challenge

While SAP has made significant efficiency gains, electricity still makes up 25% of
its CO2 emissions. Moreover, cloud storage solutions are an area of massive growth
potential for the company, but they require further energy-intensive data centres.

The solution

To reach its RE100 commitment, SAP decided to invest in high quality renewable
energy certificates (RECs) with eco-label certification. All of SAP's purchased
renewable electricity is now EKOenergy certified. In 2017 SAP sourced EKOenergy
labelled electricity from South Pole for all its operations in North America and Europe.
EKOenergy certifies electricity from renewable energy installations that fulfil additional
sustainability criteria. Through the purchase of EKOenergy, SAP is ensuring that its
operations are powered with renewable electricity – all while contributing to the
EKOenergy Climate Fund, which finances new off-grid solar projects in communities in
developing countries.